Vogue International Editor Suzy Menkes is the best-known fashion journalist in the world. After 25 years commenting on fashion for the International Herald Tribune (rebranded recently as The International New York Times), Suzy Menkes now writes exclusively for Vogue online, covering fashion worldwide.

#SuzyLFW: J.W.Anderson – A Fashion Odyssey

As models walked purposefully through the narrow walls, often in complex outfits, it was more or less impossible to take everything in at the J.W.Anderson show.

Here was a simply beautiful dress with a gilded pattern and nothing complicated but different length sleeves. Or a dress with white pleated bib like something carved in alabaster – except that it swayed gently across the body.

J.W.Anderson (Foto: Antonio Barros)

Yet there were as many ideas from Jonathan Anderson as there were complex additions: purses hanging from a neck piece on a striped dress that was cut on the bias with skirt folds flowing every which way. When the designer carried off his fashion flourishes they could be stellar, like a skirt with twin inserts of silver and gilt paired with a leather jacket cropped only just below bare breasts.

The more you tried to capture the moment, the harder it seemed: drapes here, flowers there and then a flutter of ostrich feathers. Yes, opposites attract – especially if you are Jonathan Anderson with enough ideas to design all this and the Loewe brand too. As the show came towards its end with an absolute winner – an olive green silk dress that seemed to have been poured in a thin stream over the body – I was determined to go backstage.

J.W.Anderson (Foto: Antonio Barros)

But I did not feel much the wiser when I had found the designer, who was wearing the runway olive green colour as a zippered jacket with torn jeans. Words tumbled out as he tried to explain his thought process.

“It's the idea of building up layers – and there are kind of couture edges that can be warped and disrupted – like the feathers,” he said. “You know that things shouldn’t really work but they kind of make it. Like dropping the waistline to compensate for not having a heel.”

Jonathan went on to pick out some specific clashes, like brocade that faced off against a completely different material like leather. He also talked about the insertion of pockets, giving a 'utilitarian' look even to fur.

J.W.Anderson (Foto: Antonio Barros)

So, was all this planned as disruptive and off-key?“No, it’s not awkward – except in the combination of fabrics – the idea that you try to devalue it through the process,” he said. “So you get the skirt which becomes more like streetwear. Then you up it with leather to make it more for daytime. I like this idea where the look became a bit Dickensian. And I just wanted to explore something that was reduced to an extent. The idea of the silhouette as if it was an incline drawing it upwards – and then it fades out.”

Once Jonathan started talking about “one utopia – the idea of a style odyssey” he completely lost me, as my mind clicked through the clothes which were so appealing in many ways: the clever cuts, the intriguing fabrics and the colours facing off black and white.And then the designer said one short sentence which defined the entire presentation with is subtle shaping and sudden baring of flesh:“It's this idea throughout the show of a style odyssey where you show different parts of a woman to make her sensuous,” Jonathan said.Aaaah! Got it!